Showing off!

Okay, so this post is less of a recipe blog, and more of me showing off all the hard work I've been doing lately!

I recently became the new mother to a beautiful ice cream churn. And while I normally keep a healthy affectionate distance from all my kitchen appliances, this one has got a pull on me! Who couldn't help but fall in love with the machine that helps create this:

A strawberry ice cream SNOWMAN!

I am living through the most temperate winter of my life. It's a beautiful and sunny 16C outside today, and it's the middle of winter! I still can't get over it. I grew up making snowmen 5 months of the year, and now the only way I'll see snow is when I make it myself. Hence the inspiration to make my snowman. And the best part about this little guy? You get to eat the whole thing without having to worry about the "yellow snow" :D

So that strawberry ice cream was a definite success. And I'm sorry but I'm not sharing my recipe. A girl's got to have a few secrets!

Next up was my deep dark chocolate ice cream. And honestly, when working with ingredients this beautiful, there's no other option than complete, blissful, chocolate heaven.

Dark Callebaut Chocolate

When I make fruity ice creams (like my fresh strawberry) I like to keep the base light so that the natural flavours of the fruit shine. But for this chocolate recipe I enrich my base with egg yolks, giving the base a luscious and creamy consistency perfect for melting chocolate into.

Being the good baker I am, I always measure out all my ingredients before even starting the recipe. This one took me a bit by surprise because once I'd measured everything out and taken a step back to survey my work, I quickly realized that there couldn't possibly be enough chocolate compared to the amount of dairy in the recipe! My measly pile of chocolate standing up against those full measuring cups of milk and cream looked like David and TWO Goliaths!

I just couldn't let my first chocolate ice cream recipe turn out not chocolate-y enough. So I took matters into my own hands and did what anyone else in my 'home alone ice cream maker' position would have done. I doubled the amount. And this is what happened.

Chocolate was always my favourite banana split flavour...

Well, the banana split didn't "just happen"... but I'll get to that next. This ice cream is so chocolate-y and sinfully delicious. It is rich and surprisingly not too sweet. And the real kicker? Right before it was finished churning, I swirled some peanut butter into it! Sweet baby Jesus. Best decision ever.

So, back to the making of the banana split. While I was warming up my ice cream scoop to take this picture, and eating my "mistake ice cream balls" I heard (and I swear I'm not making this up) Elvis's Blue Christmas. Yes, I do listen to Christmas songs when I'm home alone. Well anyways, I don't know if you got the connection as quickly as I did, but I immediately dropped my spoon and gathered everything I'd need for my Elvis banana split masterpiece. Banana, chocolate peanut butter ice cream, crushed peanuts, drizzle of honey, the only thing it's missing? Some crumbled up crispy bacon, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Drooling yet?

Well if you aren't, that's okay. I did a photo shoot. Enjoy!

Is this my best angle?

How about this?

I think I like this one best!